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Worst hit were passengers coming into London from East Anglia, where a signal failure at Shenfield in Essex wrought havoc for thousands of commuters for the second time in less than four months.

Where possible passengers were put onto replacement buses, but the sheer scale of the chaos meant that thousands were asked to delay their journey or – if possible – use alternative operators.

The train operator, National Express East Anglia, claimed that the problems were caused by Network Rail completing engineering work late.

This was angrily denied by the infrastructure company, which said the signalling difficulties were caused by a routine points failure – rather than an engineering overrun.

However the company – which was pilloried for a series of late running schemes at Christmas – admitted that a section of track between Crewe and Chester – was handed back to Arriva 45 minutes late.

The number of passengers affected by this delay is understood to have hit about six services, used by fewer than 200 passengers, as opposed to the 10,000 or so coming into the capital from East Anglia and Essex.

In London there were delays on the Circle and District lines after a tube train failed.

Elsewhere there was disruption in the Midlands after a suspected suicide and a derailed freight train near Birmingham Moor Street hit London Midland and Chiltern Services.

While not on the scale of the previous shambles, the latest difficulties did little to enhance Network Rail’s standing among passengers or train operators.

Iain Coucher, the company’s chief executive, who was carpeted by ministers at the turn of the year, had promised to improve the company’s performance.

A Network Rail spokesman insisted that he had delivered on the promise.

“While we accept that what happened over Christmas and the New Year was chaos, this is manifestly not in the same league,” he said.

But this failed to satisfy passenger groups who reacted furiously to the latest disruption.

“It is utterly disgraceful that after all the trouble over New Year, and after so many promises and assurances,” said Brian Cooke, chairman of London TravelWatch.

“Passengers have once again been severely delayed. It is simply not good enough, and the industry should be totally ashamed of itself.”